Andre & Alex Shoumatoff – Toyota Pickup Truck

Andre Shoumatoff
Carbon Neutral Expedition is the brainchild of longtime environmentalist Andre Shoumatoff. Mr. Shoumatoff  was named by the University of Vermont as their first ever Climate Change Coordinator. As the recipient of a World Wild Fund grant in the field of ecology and former Executive Director of the Utah Biodiesel Alliance, he is highly respected in his field.

For nearly 10 years Shoumatoff has been considered one of the nation’s top diesel and eco-diesel 4WD builders and manager of the eco-4WD and eco-diesel conversion concept using Toyota products. He regularly counsels top Land Cruiser specialty shops and individuals throughout the country about diesel conversions and was contacted by the New York Times for his opinion on the Toyota recall.

Alex Shoumatoff

Alex Shoumatoff has a long and storied career as an environmental writer, having been hailed by Donald Trump as “the greatest writer in America”. For the last four decades he has left his imprint on the American Cultural landscape, as a founding and contributing editor to both Outside Magazine and Condé Nast Traveller, as well as his long-running environmental column in Vanity Fair. In the last decade, Mr. Shoumatoff has published 10 books, but he is perhaps best known for his writing on Gorilla advocate Diane Fossey, which became the source material for Gorillas in the Mist. His most recent book, Legends of the America Desert: Sojourns in the Great Southwest, was named Time Magazine’s #2 non-fiction book of the year.

Specs for the Eco Toyota pickup are:

  • Mercedes Benz OM617 5 cylinder turbo diesel engine
  • Marlin Crawler Turbo R151 5 speed manual transmission
  • Marlin Crawler Dual Case Crawl Box 2.28 Gear Ratio
  • Marlin Crawler Gear Driven Transfer Case 4.7 Gear Low Range.
  • 4x4Labs.com Mercedes Benz Diesel Adapter
  • Custom FJ62 Front Axle with Radius Arm Coil Spring Suspension
  • Old Man Emu Suspension, ARB bull bar, and ARB Roof Top Tent from CruiserOutfitters.com.  ARB bull bar highly modified to fit a massive Warn M12000 winch.
  • For the Carbon Neutral Expedition it will be running on 100% recycled-oil derived biodiesel.  This will allow the vehicle to produce less than 1/4 of the greenhouse gas of a Toyota Prius.
  • In spring/summer 2010 it will be converted to vegetable oil with components from PlantDrive.com.
  • TreadWright.com Guard Dog 275 85 R 17 recycled tires.

This project vehicle is sponsored by the following companies:

The vehicle is currently under construction and we are working hard to have it done before the April 10 departure date.  Here is a recent picture of it as it appears with recent paint.  To follow the build of the vehicle tune into the buildup thread on the Expedition Portal web site.

Here are photos of some of the features of the vehicle:

- A custom radius-arm style suspension inspired by late-era Toyota Land Cruisers. This suspension allows for the durability of a live axle with the performance of a race-proven suspension that also performs excellently on pavement:

A customized ARB Bull Bar modified to fit a M12000 winch:

Complete paint work:

Stay tuned in the next 3 weeks as this vehicle is modified to be a full fledged environmentally friendly expedition vehicle.  Further details can be found here:   http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20372